May 20 2015

Police Called Because Of Stuffed Tiger

There really isn’t anything to say about this beyond what I clipped below:

CAMAS, Wash. — Someone called 911 in southern Washington because they thought a giant stuffed tiger tied to the top of an SUV was real.

Yeah. If I had a nickel for every time *that* happened…

Source: Would you call 911? Stuffed animal prompts police action | www.kirotv.com


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Jan 06 2015

The World is Doomed, Part 984

Once again, proof that the world is doomed. This is a “Hot Network Question” on StackExchange.com:

How do centaurs get enough to live?

I found it here. The answer is fairly simple: CENTAURS DON’T EXIST.

Except on this car commercial. WHICH ISN’T REAL.

To be fair, the current list toppers are Drawing an histogram from a bash command output (that’s a Unix-thing I think) and How would plants be affected by a 48 hour day? which in my opinion is an interesting question. Consider: what if we find a planet that has 48 hour days? Could the plants that we grow on Earth survive there?

But seriously folks. Centaurs? C’mon. Let’s step up our game for 2015.

 


Aug 22 2013

Dr. Phil Making Sure We Know He’s Gross

Not a big fan of Dr. Phil. Stuff like this Tweet, which he (or his staff) deleted but was saved by folks at Salon.com, is a good reminder that he’s gross.

The vile tweet Dr. Phil deleted - Salon.com

“The safe place to talk about hard things” indeed.

The vile tweet Dr. Phil deleted – Salon.com.


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Aug 13 2013

Antibiotic Free Meat Is Free Of Antibiotics Unless It Isn’t

This story makes my head hurt.

From ABC/AP, an item about Chipotle Mexican Grill and how they are “considering tweaking its ‘responsibly raised’ meat standards to allow meat from animals that have been given antibiotics to treat illnesses.”

Apparently this was to clarify an earlier story. I don’t know exactly. Read it here if you want to.

This is the part that made me go “hmm.”

Quoting from ABC/AP:

The use of antibiotics to treat sick animals is considered acceptable by some health advocates, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is based in Washington, D.C. Sarah Klein, a senior attorney with the group, said the problem is when animals are fed antibiotics with food on a constant basis to promote growth or prevent disease, which could in turn lead to the growth of antibiotic resistant germs.

But Klein said the “Organic Meat” and “No Antibiotics Administered: USDA Verified” labels found in supermarkets mean the meat wasn’t treated with antibiotics, even if the animal was sick. She noted that there are other labels that aren’t verified by the government, such as “raised without antibiotics.”

“It may be true, but it’s not verified,” she said.

Let’s try that again. “It may be true, but it’s not verified.” Does that mean it’s true or untrue? I guess the answer is “perhaps.” Which doesn’t seem good enough.

If I could, I’d live on a farm. Until then I suppose we’ll take our chances.

via Chipotle Considering Change to Allow Antibiotics – ABC News.


Jul 30 2013

Weiner Stuff Not About His Wife – There Is No Carlita Danger

Juliana Margulies was asked about the Weiner stuff, which makes sense because of the character she plays on “The Good Wife.” (For the record, I have nothing against Juliana Margulies. At all. Happen to really like her a lot.) My point is, when politicians do what Weiner did (and seriously, let’s hope that isn’t very often because WOW IS CARLOS DANGER CREEPY), nobody should make it about his wife.

Weiner’s wife isn’t running for office. She is not Carlita Danger. How is this about her?  Seriously. She can do whatever she wants as far as I’m concerned. Do I wonder why she’d stay with him? Sure. But that’s between the two of them. It’s silly to blame or attack her in any way.

There’s also a doofy bit in the comments section of this story (which I should put in air quotes because it’s not really news, but whatever) knocking Hillary Clinton for “standing by her man” like Huma is. A commenter going by the moniker Beer Goggles (can’t make this stuff up) writes that he/she/it has “no empathy towards Power Hungry, TAMMY WYNETTE robot, Huma.” For our younger readers or those with poor memories, here is what Hillary actually said back in 1992.

Sorry, Beer Goggles. Not quite accurate. Good try though.

‘Good Wife’ star empathizes with Weiner’s spouse – WTOP.com.


Oct 16 2012

MTA Raises Fares, Can’t Spell

It appears that although the MTA is planning on raising fares, they can’t spell.

What do these two things have to do with each other? Nothing really. Except that they are both MTA-related. The MTA has indeed proposed a fare increase, although the details of said fare hike are unclear.

What is clear is that someone at the MTA, either a human or a sentient machine, can’t spell. But it’s bad spelling for a good cause.

The safety of you and your children.

This is from the New York Times Metropolitan Diary and was submitted by a Times reader, who writes that the following text “is a literal transcription of an electronic sign at the Avenue of the Americas-34th Street Downtown subway stop. All spelling, capitalization, line breaks are as found.” The submitter did capitalize the first line to “make it the title.” I’m OK with that.

Here, for your reading (dis)pleasure, is the text, or ur-text, or beat poetry, or whatever you want to call it, of an electronic sign in the service of the MTA. Read more »


Aug 28 2012

Duck Fetus Eating Contest Grosses Us Out

This story about a duck fetus eating contest in Brooklyn makes us nauseous.

We were about to write “But it shouldn’t because we eat eggs so what’s the difference?”

Then we read more of the story.

A word of clarification: they don’t call this food item a “duck fetus” because odds are nobody would eat it. Well, not as many people. The word used is balut.

And now we will explain what a balut is. And why we are, in fact, grossed out by the contest, despite the fact that we eat eggs.

Read more »